The peak NSW farm lobby group has shifted its climate change policy stance and has called on governments to back "the transition from fossil fuels".

The NSW Farmers Association ended its annual conference on Wednesday by voting to remove clauses in its official policy that had called for a royal commission "to explore the scientific veracity and soundness of claims that carbon is a pollutant" and to investigate "whether the activities of mankind are responsible for causing any change".

Members of the Liverpool Plains Youth Group on the black soils of Breeza Station. Credit:Dean Sewell

In their place, members voted to replace those calls with a recognition that primary producers "are on the front lines of seasonal variability, exacerbated by a changing climate".

The rejected clauses – inserted between 2008 and 2011 – were "archaic" and the strong support for their replacement "shows farmers really are the forefront of climate change and really care", said Josh Gilbert, chair of the Young Farmers Council, which put forward the amendments.

Mr Gilbert, whose parents farm cattle near Foster on the Mid North Coast, said farmers were already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate.

"We see pests and parasites coming down from Queensland becoming more prevalent," he said, adding increased flooding was another change associated with the warming conditions.

NSW Farmers also approved a policy change that called on governments to back "the transition from fossil fuels such as coal and gas, towards more renewable energy sources in rural, regional and remote areas" provided there is a "net benefit to farming communities".

Farmer Stuart Andrews, on his farm Tarwyn Park near Bylong, where South Korea's Kepco wants to build an open-cut mine.Credit:Jonathan Carroll

Farmers have stepped up their opposition to major coal mining or coal seam gas activities in NSW, particularly in wake of last week's decision by federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to approve the $1.7 billion Shenhua open-cut coal mine in the rich Liverpool Plains farming region of northern NSW.

Greens NSW MP and climate spokesman Jeremy Buckingham said the NSW Farmers' move was "fantastic" and was more proof that the industry and his party were aligning on key issues.

"We work together to protect land and water and for policies that facilitate successful and sustainable agriculture and regional economic development," Mr Buckingham said.

"The expansion of coal and coal seam gas directly threatens farmers and makes no sense with the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy that is picking up speed," he said.

"Tony Abbott is becoming increasingly isolated from public opinion on the impact of climate change," Mr Fitzgibbon said. "NSW Farmers are sending a clear message that climate change is an issue the farming sector is dealing with every day."

"Despite being one of the greatest challenges to greater productivity and profitability in the agriculture sector, Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce couldn't even bring themselves to include changing weather patterns in the terms of reference for their agriculture white paper," he said.

A spokesman for federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said the minister "also recognises climate variability, but what he has consistently said is that he does not believe a carbon tax will fix this".